The present invention relates to construction equipment, and particularly to construction machines constituted by self-propelled vehicles equipped with a backhoe.
A backhoe mounted on a tracked or wheeled tractor constitutes a versatile piece of field equipment which can travel over a wide variety of terrain and efficiently perform digging operations. Therefore, such machines are currently used in a wide variety of construction projects.
It is not uncommon for a backhoe to be mounted on the rear of a tractor which is also equipped with a front-end loader unit. Such machines can selectively perform earth moving and digging operations.
While such machines have a wide variety of uses, there are many operations which they cannot perform alone. In these cases, it is therefore necessary for a number of machines to travel to the job site. This, of course, increases the cost of the operation, not only because of the higher capital expenditures for a number of vehicles and higher fuel and maintenance costs, but also because at least one operator must be provided for each vehicle.
In addition, the necessity for the vehicles to be properly positioned relative to one another at the job location in order to cooperate in the manner required by the operation to be performed creates additional problems, particularly when the operation is to be performed in difficult terrain where there might not be a large enough ground area which is sufficiently level and solid to support a number of machines in close proximity to one another.
One commonly encountered operation which involves use of a backhoe but which cannot be performed by currently available backhoe machines alone involves the installation of power and telephone poles. Currently, to do this job, a backhoe machine of the type described above is driven to the job location together with any one of a variety of machines equipped with members capable of lifting the pole and maintaining it vertical in a trench while the trench is being backfilled by a backhoe, and possibly subsequently tamped.